In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Abhinandan Subramanian reflects on the first season, plans for the second iteration and more.

The inaugural season of the Premier Futsal League was a massive hit among fans in India. The tournament saw some of the biggest names in world football arrive in India including Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Cafu, Hernan Crespo, Michel Salgado, and Falcao, who is also known as the ‘Pele’ of Futsal.

Sportskeeda managed to get a few words from Premier Futsal’s CEO, Abhinandan Subramanian, after last night’s final. Mumbai 5s beat Kochi 5s 3-2 on penalties, as Ryan Giggs lifted the first ever Premier Futsal trophy.

He said: “The first season has been fabulous. It’s almost like a perfect ending the first season deserves. This game was extremely tight, and both teams respected each other a lot during the game, and with the game going to penalties it was just brilliant.

“All signs are saying more games should take place. We’ll have it on the same scale or much larger in every season from now on.”

Abhinandan believes it was really important to bring the big names to India, as they helped Futsal to take it to another level not just in India,but also globally.

“Them playing here, and being the advocates of futsal. I think they took Futsal globally to another level. Futsal is the fastest indoor game in the world, but it’s also the coolest game that you've never heard of. Suddenly, you’ve so many big names like Ronaldinho, Ryan Giggs playing Futsal. It’s brilliant for the game.

“They love it, and they’re all coming back next season for sure. Obviously, we want to expand the league so there will be more legends and bigger names. That’s the plans for Premier Futsal.”

Asked about his future plans for Premier Futsal after a successful first season, to which he replied: “There are lots of things. We need to make sure it’d be much bigger and better next season. We need to take it to more and bigger cities. Increasing the popularity of the sport which has been our key objective. We also want to bring more Indians to Futsal.”

The next season of Premier Futsal is expected to take place in January next year, whilst also the big names are expected to come back as they’ve signed a three-year contract.